The stories behind the science

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Ingenium Channel is a digital hub featuring curated content related to science, technology and innovation.

A coastal reconnaissance Bristol Bolingbroke destined for the Royal Canadian Air Force being assembled at the Fairchild Aircraft Limited factory, Longueuil, Québec, 1941. Anon., “Les C.F. et la R.C.A.F.” Le Samedi, 18 October 1941, (c).
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Aviation
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“We must get aircraft equipment and look after our coasts” – The Royal Canadian Air Force and the Bristol Bolingbroke coastal reconnaissance aircraft

Profile picture for user rfortier
Oct 17, 2021
How would you like to read a fascinating text while sipping a glass of turnip juice, my reading friend? If so, you are in for a treat, if may quote the vampire Eric Northman. I think. I hope. And yes, the topic in question is one of the aircraft types in the fabulous collection of the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, Ontario. Before we go any further on the yellow brick road that we are following today, yours truly would like to mansplain the title of the article published in Le
A composite image of several orange pumpkins, a spacecraft next to a rocky body, and a zombie
12 m
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Agriculture
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3 things you should know about pumpkins, Trojan asteroids, and embracing your inner zombie

Profile picture for user Michelle Campbell Mekarski
2
Oct 15, 2021
For the October edition, our science advisors discuss how selective breeding results in more choice at the pumpkin patch, a fly-by of seven Trojan asteroids, and why you need to embrace your “inner zombie.” Happy Halloween!
The prototype of the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter on display at the Canada Aviation Museum, Ottawa, circa 2001. CASM.
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Aviation
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From pole to pole and horizon to horizon, the Twin Otter was, is and will be there: A very brief pontification on one of the best Canadian aircraft ever designed

Profile picture for user rfortier
Oct 10, 2021
Greetings, my reading friend. Yours truly is happy to see that you wish to drink once again from the fountain of knowledge that our anarchic and overly chatty blog / bulletin / thingee sometimes constitutes. I will not tell you anything you did not already know by saying (typing?) that the supremely illustrious Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, acquired a very important aircraft in October 1981 and ... What do you say? You do not have a clue of what I am talking (typing?)
Three Conservators wearing personal protective equipment, including Tyvek suits, googles, nitrile gloves and respirators.
5 m
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Communications
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Behind the scenes of the Ingenium big move: Hazard mitigation of a print maker’s drawer

Profile picture for user Caitlin Walsh
Oct 8, 2021
From mice nests and insects to lead ink, conservators deal with a lot of hazards to keep museum collections safe.
The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 of the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, Ottawa, Ontario, February 2009. Wikipedia.
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Aviation
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The strange and baffling case of the switched aeroplanes; or, Even when using New Mathematics, 4112 never equals 5878: The tall tale of the Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 of the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, part 2

Profile picture for user rfortier
Oct 3, 2021
Ahh, you are back. What a pleasant surprise. Would I be correct in assuming that you wish to see (read?) the second and final part of this article on the Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 of the fantabulastic Canada Aviation and Space Museum of Ottawa, Ontario? Wunderbar! The story of that particular example of the B.E.2 began in England, in the factory of British & Colonial Aeroplane Company Limited, as most of Europe was busy tearing itself to pieces during the First World War. Completed in late
The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 of the Canada Aviation and Space Museum when it belonged to the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa, Ontario. H.J. (“Titch”) Jenkins, “Correspondence – Ottawa’s – and Sowrey’s – B.E.2c.” Flight, 12 October 1961, 600.
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Aviation
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The strange and baffling case of the switched aeroplanes; or, Even when using New Mathematics, 4112 never equals 5878: The tall tale of the Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 of the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, part 1

Profile picture for user rfortier
Oct 1, 2021
With your permission, or without it if need be, my reading friend, I would like to launch this issue of our blog / bulletin / thingee with a question. Do your like mysteries and / or oddities? Me too. By the way, did you know that, as late as 2017, the Public Works & Environmental Services of the city of Ottawa, Ontario, the nonbilingual capital of a bilingual country, sometimes used divining rods to locate an underground pipe suspected of leaking? I kid you not, but I do digress. Now that yours
A women receives a COVID-19 vaccine from a healthcare worker in a school gym. Six people stand in the background, watching and clapping.
4 m
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Engineering & Technology
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Tech tales: Capturing the stories behind Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout

Profile picture for user Jennifer Fawcett
Sep 29, 2021
Did you ever stop to think about the chain of events that had to happen before you could roll up your sleeve for a COVID-19 vaccine?
Isidore Joseph Amédée Marsan. Anon., “Isidore Joseph Amédée Marsan.” Le Bulletin des agriculteurs, 17 September 1921, cover.
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Agriculture
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One of the pioneers of agricultural science in Québec and Canada: Isidore Joseph Amédée Marsan

Profile picture for user rfortier
Sep 26, 2021
As a member of the species Homo sapiens, or wise man in English, an oxymoron of oxymorons if there is one, my reading friend, you must eat to survive. Agriculture played / plays a crucial role in this survival of humanity which over time became an almost exponential growth in population which threatens the balance, and even perhaps the survival of the Earth’s ecosystem. I would like to share a few words with you today about one of the pioneers of agricultural science in Québec and Canada
An advertisement for St. Lawrence Starch Company Limited, Port Credit, Ontario. Anon., “Advertisement – St. Lawrence Starch Company Limited.” Le Bulletin des agriculteurs, September 1941, 61.
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Aviation
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Free, magnificent cards bearing drawings or photographs of Allied aircraft! Collect them all!

Profile picture for user rfortier
Sep 19, 2021
Do you like gifts, my reading friend? And no, in this case, this is not a rhetorical question. This being said (typed?), I do not have the slightest intention of giving you anything. I simply wish to make use of an advertisement which appeared in the September 1941 issue of the Québec monthly magazine Le Bulletin des agriculteurs of Montréal, Québec, to pontificate on the question with which I have just introduced this September 2021 issue of our blog / bulletin / thingee. You are obviously
An illustration of a multi-ethnic group of children holding up a sun, a plant sprout, a raindrop and a recycling symbol. At the center, a child hugs planet Earth.
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Article
Earth & Environment
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Science Literacy Week: 6 great ways to learn about climate

Profile picture for user Renée-Claude Goulet
Sep 16, 2021
Looking for ways to take part in Science Literacy Week (Sept. 20—26, 2021)? We've got you covered with this list of engaging teaching and learning resources. You’ll find something for all ages…with a focus on the theme of climate.
A spliced, three-part image features: a tray of oysters on the left, a graphical representation of a black hole and a neutron star orbiting each other in the centre, and a graphical image of a robot on the right.
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Computing
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3 things you should know about acidification, gravitational waves, and humanoids

Profile picture for user Renée-Claude Goulet
2
Sep 14, 2021
For the September edition, our experts wrote about why ocean acidification is posing problems for shellfish, how researchers used gravitational waves to observe a black hole and neutron star orbiting each other and merging, and what the future could look like — with humanoids in our midst.
A cartoon-style graphic of two hands holding a tablet; the screen features an open book and some science-themed icons like a light bulb, a microscope, and a rocket ship.
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Earth & Environment
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Science Literacy Week explores science in our everyday lives

Profile picture for user Sonia Mendes
Sep 13, 2021
Hey educators! Help your students tap into their inner scientist…with fun and FREE resources during Science Literacy Week.
An Aluminium français-Grégoire automobile, Cité de l’automobile – Musée national – Collection Schlumpf, Mulhouse, France, May 2010, Wikimedia.
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Road Transportation
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‘Tween two joints, he really did something: Jean Albert Grégoire and his magnificent automobiles, Part 2

Profile picture for user rfortier
Sep 12, 2021
Good day, my reading friend. Your presence suggests that the first part of our article on the life and work of French engineer Jean Albert Grégoire pleased you a little bit. So let us start without further delay the second part of said article. You will be delighted to learn that a project launched by Grégoire around 1943, while the Second World War raged on, had a relatively happy ending. In 1941, in parallel with his work on the CGE-Tudor electric city automobile mentioned in the first part of